Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? —Acts 26:14

Are you determined to have your own way in living for God? We will never be free from this trap until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of “the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Stubbornness and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set on our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our own rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Him. Whenever we rely on self-respect, we systematically disturb and grieve His Spirit. And when we finally understand that it is Jesus we have been persecuting all this time, it is the most crushing revelation ever.

Is the Word of God tremendously penetrating and sharp in me as I hand it on to you, or does my life betray the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the very spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of only one thing— a perfect oneness with the Father. And He tells us, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). All I do should be based on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that others may use me, go around me, or completely ignore me, but if I will submit to it for His sake, I will prevent Jesus Christ from being persecuted.

Journal DJR
Good morning Lord, The first paragraph mentions stubbornness and self will. Determination and perseverance fit in the same category. And it is rightly noted that these can lead us away from you and your best plan for us.
But we see the same characteristics in all the great Biblical leaders … after they got connected with you and then, with new direction, those same traits that had led astray became valuable. I think mainly of Paul (Saul) who was running hard, the wrong direction. When he got straightened out he ran just as hard … the right direction
Eugene Petersen has a good perspective on getting connected and coming from the right direction in the Message.

Matthew 11:28-30 The Message “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Prayer: Lord, Help me today, to stay connected and learn those “unforced rhythms of grace”

Do not worry about your life . . . —Matthew 6:25

We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image . . . —2 Corinthians 3:18

The greatest characteristic a Christian can exhibit is this completely unveiled openness before God, which allows that person’s life to become a mirror for others. When the Spirit fills us, we are transformed, and by beholding God we become mirrors. You can always tell when someone has been beholding the glory of the Lord, because your inner spirit senses that he mirrors the Lord’s own character. Beware of anything that would spot or tarnish that mirror in you. It is almost always something good that will stain it— something good, but not what is best.

The most important rule for us is to concentrate on keeping our lives open to God. Let everything else including work, clothes, and food be set aside. The busyness of things obscures our concentration on God. We must maintain a position of beholding Him, keeping our lives completely spiritual through and through. Let other things come and go as they will; let other people criticize us as they will; but never allow anything to obscure the life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in Him. This is an easy thing to allow, but we must guard against it. The most difficult lesson of the Christian life is learning how to continue “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord . . . .”

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord, Today’s reading confirms something that I’ve been hearing you say recently … That complexity is the enemy of elegant and beautiful solutions. So “Keep It Simple” is a good motto. I heard instructions for the Christian Life reduced down to 4 words at the men’s retreat last week, “Glorify God, Serve People” There seems to be value in distilling a complex thing, like a Christian Life, down to it’s most basic form … so that we can make sure that those monumental basics are getting attended to, and not being squeezed out by “other things” that may be important but are less essential.

Prayer: Lord, help me today to stay focused on you … so that I become a mirror to those around who will look at me and see you.

When He was alone . . . the twelve asked Him about the parable —Mark 4:10

May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless . . . —1 Thessalonians 5:23

Abraham built an altar . . . ; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar . . . —Genesis 22:9

This event is a picture of the mistake we make in thinking that the ultimate God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, that is, sacrifice our lives. Not— “Lord, I am ready to go with You . . . to death” (Luke 22:33). But— “I am willing to be identified with Your death so that I may sacrifice my life to God.”

We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this error, and the same process is at work in our lives. God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having, namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the death of Jesus. Then we enter into a relationship with God whereby we may sacrifice our lives to Him.

It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a “living sacrifice”— to let Him have all your strengths that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus (Romans 12:1). This is what is acceptable to God.

Journal DJR
Good morning Lord, This concept seems clear to grasp but harder to implement. Kind of like the man who said, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. Yes, I choose to sacrifice my life for you and your kingdom but help me with the part of me that doesn’t.

Know that it is a process. You see my men and women in the Bible who were in process. Abraham in this story and David and Paul and Peter and all the others. They wrestled the same fight with their flesh that you are wrestling. Try to learn from their experiences. What you can learn from others will be valuable, but limited. What you will learn most from is your personal life and our personal relationship. I will teach you and you will learn quickly and well as you walk closer and hear better. So let’s walk this life together. It’s the best way to live. Best for you. Best for me.

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. . . All my springs are in you —Psalm 87:7

Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “. . . put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!

The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.

And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
I think maybe You are showing me some of the things the deco is talking about today. There are areas where I am at the end of myself. Areas of total failure … where I am backing up and saying, “This isn’t working … I think I’ll try another way. Is that You, Lord? Are you in that? Or am I just looking for another way out of my problems.
Getting out of problems is not a bad thing. It’s whether or not you are doing it my way or your way. If it’s just your next idea, well good luck. If you’ve been hearing my voice, then you won’t need luck. It will be right and you’ll know it and see the results soon enough. When you hit on “my way” you’re home free. Even if all the problems dont dissolve instantly (and they probably won’t) … you’ll walk in peace because you’ll know we are in this together.

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Galatians 6:14

I did not come to bring peace but a sword —Matthew 10:34

Never be sympathetic with a person whose situation causes you to conclude that God is dealing harshly with him. God can be more tender than we can conceive, and every once in a while He gives us the opportunity to deal firmly with someone so that He may be viewed as the tender One. If a person cannot go to God, it is because he has something secret which he does not intend to give up— he may admit his sin, but would no more give up that thing than he could fly under his own power. It is impossible to deal sympathetically with people like that. We must reach down deep in their lives to the root of the problem, which will cause hostility and resentment toward the message. People want the blessing of God, but they can’t stand something that pierces right through to the heart of the matter.

If you are sensitive to God’s way, your message as His servant will be merciless and insistent, cutting to the very root. Otherwise, there will be no healing. We must drive the message home so forcefully that a person cannot possibly hide, but must apply its truth. Deal with people where they are, until they begin to realize their true need. Then hold high the standard of Jesus for their lives. Their response may be, “We can never be that.” Then drive it home with, “Jesus Christ says you must.” “But how can we be?” “You can’t, unless you have a new Spirit” (see Luke 11:13).

There must be a sense of need created before your message is of any use. Thousands of people in this world profess to be happy without God. But if we could be truly happy and moral without Jesus, then why did He come? He came because that kind of happiness and peace is only superficial. Jesus Christ came to “bring . . . a sword” through every kind of peace that is not based on a personal relationship with Himself.

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . —Romans 8:28

Being faithful to Jesus Christ is the most difficult thing we try to do today. We will be faithful to our work, to serving others, or to anything else; just don’t ask us to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Many Christians become very impatient when we talk about faithfulness to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more deliberately by Christian workers than by the world. We treat God as if He were a machine designed only to bless us, and we think of Jesus as just another one of the workers.

The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son.

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December 18, 2013-JDV

Lord, sometimes it seems like all the promises of God are under the umbrella…”if I obey, if I do the right thing, if you want to straighten out my circumstance, if all things are in alignment. “I know my failings, my wandering heart. I know that I do not stay connected all the time. Does this mean that when I am frightened, disobedient, uncertain and disconnected that You are not there working out my life? Am I required to do “the right and Christian thing” all the time, in order to receive the blessings and benefits of being a child of God?

And God says…”The very reason for the magnitude of the sacrifice of Jesus is that I must see perfection when I look at you for our relationship. However, you are unable to live a perfect life. And I cannot grade on the curve; 90% of perfect does not work…getting or being better does not work. I require perfection, and because you are unable to live up to this requirement I gave you the perfect sacrifice and substitute; Jesus Christ.  So do not try to be perfect, do not even try to live the perfect or almost perfect life. Live life more abundantly, by staying connected to Jesus, knowing that as you are near to Him you will be transformed, over time.  Seek first the kingdom of God, and everything else you need, including how to be connected, curious and in the present with God will be provided.”